SIMPLIFIED CONTROL FOR OPTIMIZED HYBRID VEHICLE POWERTRAIN OPERATION

Methods and systems for calibrating a hybrid vehicle system for simplified control of the powertrain to optimize fuel efficiency of the hybrid vehicle and for operating a hybrid vehicle powertrain accordingly. The optimization mechanism reduces the optimized control problem to a single degree-of-freedom. Accordingly, during real-time operation of the hybrid vehicle, the system is able to quickly identify and apply optimized operating settings for a particular driver demand and, in some implementations, to provide a particular rate of change of the state-of-charge of the battery of the hybrid vehicle.